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Food Factory to Get Power from Mashed Potato

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A company in the UK that makes some of the country’s most famous biscuits is set to launch a new electricity generator that will be powered by mashed potato.

The 2 Sisters Food Group which produces the well known Fox’s biscuit brand will open a new bio-refinery inside their Carlisle factory which is set to produce 3,500 megawatt hours (MWh) in electricity and 5,000MWh in steam power every year.

Part of this refinery will include what are called anaerobic digestion plants which will take waste mashed potato from the company’s other manufacturing lines and turn it into energy.

Speaking to The Guardian, the company’s sustainability director, Andrew Edlin, said: “ The bio-refinery is a world-first for the food industry, using a new type of super-efficient technology to generate energy from potato waste,” he said in a statement. We are looking to use this system to open up to 10 further energy plants at other 2 Sisters factories over the coming three years, using potato and other food waste to generate energy and steam.”

They also say that if the new way of powering the factory works they will look to roll it out across their entire network of 42 factories.